


Lucky at Cards

by queenofthorns



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:48:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27359059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenofthorns/pseuds/queenofthorns
Summary: "Lucky at cards, unlucky in love" the saying goes. But some people are just unlucky. Spoilers through episode 1.11 "Colonial Day."
Relationships: Lee "Apollo" Adama/Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, Lee Adama/Ellen Tigh (at least in Ellen's head)
Kudos: 18





	Lucky at Cards

Ellen Tigh may not be a Cylon, but Lee swears she’s got some kind of homing beacon, because every time he turns a corner on _Galactica_ , she’s there, waiting for him, all grabby hands and insinuating voice full of smoke and ambrosia. He’s only safe in the cockpit and in the pilots’ barracks, where, thank the gods, she hasn’t hunted him down yet.

The worst part is that he can’t tell anyone about his Ellen problem. Lee doesn’t want a rift between the man he used to call “Uncle Saul” and his father. The President has bigger things to worry about. And then there’s Kara. But she’d laugh her ass off, and besides, he doesn’t trust her not to say something in front of Tigh. So Lee keeps his mouth shut and when Cally shoots him a curious look because he wants to know if there are shortcuts from the hangar bay, he tells her it’s because he gets lost in the endless corridors on _Galactica_.

He’s managed thirty-six hours without an Ellen encounter as a result of careful recon.

Maybe that’s made him careless, because he takes the straight route back to his quarters today, and it’s not till the elevator doors close that he realizes he’s miscalculated. He’s forgotten that Tigh’s off inspecting the tyllium mining operation, which means Ellen has free run of the ship.

“Hello, Lee!” Ellen hits the “close” button before Lee can execute a strategic retreat. “Going my way?”

She’s wearing yet another of the slinky dresses that show off, well, everything. Not for the first time, Lee wonders how she manages to look like she’s on her way to a cocktail party, and where her endless supply of sexy clothes comes from. And then he starts calculating where they’ll store all the tyllium from the asteroid, because Ellen Tigh and sexy do not belong together in his mind.

“That depends...” he says, without thinking. Before he’s finished, he realizes he’s said the exact wrong thing.

“Depends on what?” she asks.

Lee tries to put some distance between them, but she matches his step back with two steps forward until she’s even closer. The faint scent of lilies wafts over him and he starts thinking about how long it’s been since … Only this is Ellen Tigh and he doesn’t even like her.

“You know, Lee,” she says, fingering the gold chain at her neck. “Sometimes I think you might be avoiding me.”

“Oh, no!” He backs up again, until he feels the wall of the elevator against his back. “Not at all, Mrs. Tigh. I’m just ...busy.”

“Call me Ellen!” She runs a polished fingernail down his cheek and jaw. “You poor pilots are so overworked. You need a little relaxation.”

Her kiss isn't all that relaxing, and Lee doesn't know why he opens his mouth when he feels her tongue against his lips. He closes his eyes so he can pretend, for a minute, that Kara’s thigh is smooth under his palm, Kara’s hand is undoing the clasps and zippers on his flight-suit, sliding down his stomach until she stops between his legs.

And then it’s Kara’s voice saying, “Sorry, sir, I didn’t know you were busy!”

Lee pulls away from Ellen as though she’s radioactive. Kara’s standing there, her cane holding the doors open, and she looks like she’s just stepped in something nasty.

Ellen takes her time readjusting her dress and patting down her hair; Lee wonders whether anything ever embarrasses her. Before she leaves, she whispers in his ear, “Sooner or later, I always get what I want.”

Kara steps aside to let her off, and Ellen turns to blow Lee a kiss.

***

The doors close behind Ellen and Lee braces himself for the storm.

“Frakking Tigh’s wife, Lee?” Kara says, and her voice is cold as ice. “Behind his back? I thought _I_ hated the guy.”

“I’m not ...” he starts, but Kara’s not listening.

“I didn’t think you were _that_ desperate.” She shakes her head. “Half the fleet would line up for a date with Captain Goldenboy. Especially now that you took out the Cylon base.” Somehow even that comes out sounding like an insult.

He doesn’t want half the fleet. The only person he wants is standing right here in front of him, top buttons of her jacket undone, so all he can think about how that mole on her throat would feel under his tongue.

Until he remembers all the reasons he can’t have her, starting with the fact that she’s his dead brother’s girl and ending with the fact that he’s the CAG and she’s one of his pilots.

“It’s not … it’s not what it looked like, Kara,” Lee says, but he can feel the blood rising in his face and he knows he looks guilty. He _is_ guilty. Just not the way Kara thinks.

“It looked like she had something caught in her throat and you were helping her get it out.” Now there’s a welcome hint of laughter in her voice. “With your tongue.”

Lee sighs. “I didn’t … she …” There’s nothing he can say. “I guess it _was_ what it looked like.”

Some switch flips and Kara’s back to serious again. “Lee,” she says, “it’s just … be careful. I wouldn’t want …”

He can’t stop himself from hoping. “What?”

“I wouldn’t want you to catch anything,” she says, eyes narrowed.

“Kara,” he says, “for the last time – I’m not having an affair with Ellen Tigh.”

“Good.” But he can’t tell if she believes him.

Kara taps her cane on the floor, restless.

“Is this thing broken?” she asks, finally.

Lee glances over at the panel and realizes none of the buttons on the panel are lit. He punches one of them, at random, and the elevator groans into life.

“You know,” Kara says, “she almost makes me feel sorry for Tigh.”

“Wonders will never cease.” And then Lee remembers what the President said. “He loves her very much.”

“Then he’s a fool,” she says. “Some people don’t deserve love.”

***

Lee doesn’t know whether it’s pathetic or heartwarming that they’re all celebrating Colonial Day when the Twelve Colonies have ceased to exist except in their memories and imaginations. He doesn’t really care, because it’s a slow dance and Kara’s in his arms. He lays his cheek against her soft hair and closes his eyes, because just for now, anything’s possible, despite the rules, despite their history.

The music stops far too soon, and Kara disengages herself in a hurry. Something catches her eye over his shoulder.

“Dradis contact,” she mutters. “Raider, five o’clock.”

Lee twists around and sees Ellen Tigh headed toward him. She’ll try and dance with him and he’ll have to pretend he doesn’t mind her hands all over him. He can’t do it. Not tonight. Not after near-strangulation, nearly blowing someone’s head off in an interrogation and trying to outthink Tom Zarek. Not after Kara in that dress, wherever she got it. Not after the slow dance and her breath warm on his neck and driving himself crazy wondering what it would be like to kiss her.

No, he can't face Ellen now. If he can't be with Kara, then he wants to be alone.

“I’m heading back,” he says. “I’m tired.”

Kara snorts. “You’re a coward.”

“You coming?” he asks. He keeps it light and casual, because he can’t let her see how desperate he is for her to say "yes."

Her eyebrow shoots up in that “are you crazy?” look that he remembers so well from all the other times he’s ever tried to get Kara to leave a party before she was ready. “I’m not done partying yet.” She smoothes his lapel. “Go on,” she says. “I’ll cover your retreat.”

***

It takes Lee a while to figure it out: Kara’s reluctance to play with them; her strange little conversation with Baltar; the way the doctor’s twitchier than usual. And then, once he knows, it’s so obvious.

Lee remembers all the hallmarks of a classic Kara Thrace five-step self-destruct maneuver. One: pick up a guy at a bar or a party; two: get drunk and frack him; three: (optional) get Lee to bail her out of trouble; four: pretend she doesn’t care whether she ever sees the guy again; five: repeat at regular intervals. Even the end of the world hasn’t changed some things. It’s just harder to watch her now. And Lee has no idea what she's punishing herself for this time.

His gut twists at the thought of Kara with Baltar, and he tosses down his hand. He’s lost again.

“Lucky in love, unlucky at cards; lucky at cards, unlucky in love,” Gaeta says, unexpectedly, and they all stare at him. “My mother told me that,” Gaeta adds.

Gaeta’s mother was wrong, Lee thinks. Some men are just unlucky.

He wonders whether it would have been different. If he’d stayed at the party with Kara. If he hadn’t been afraid of one dance with Ellen Tigh. If he hadn’t been a coward.

And now he'll never know.

**Author's Note:**

> Another repost from the long-defunct LiveJournal - but I still love these characters so much.


End file.
